Douglas decided to produce a four-engine transport about twice
the size of the DC-3 and, in 1938, developed the single DC-4E to carry 42
passengers by day or 30 by night. It had complete sleeping accommodations,
including a private bridal room.

It proved too
expensive to maintain, so airlines agreed to suspend development in favor
of the less complex DC-4, but it was not put into commercial service until
1946. Its military derivative was the C-54 "Skymaster" transport, ordered
by the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1942.

Douglas built
1,241 of the DC-4s and its military counterparts, including the R5D for
the Navy. During the war, C-54s flew a million miles a month over the
rugged North Atlantic -- more than 20 round trips a day. A special VC-54C,
nicknamed the "Sacred Cow" by the White House press corps, became the
first presidential aircraft, ordered for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In the years
immediately following the war, new DC-4s and used C-54s carried more
passengers than any other four-engine transport. Some were still flying
through 1998.

After World War
II, commercial airlines placed more than 300 civilian DC-4 transports into
service.

Specifications

First flight:

Feb.
14, 1942

Model number:

DC-4

Span:

117
feet 6 inches

Length:

93
feet 5 inches

Height:

27
feet 7 inches

Power:

Four
1,450 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-2000 "Twin-Wasp"
engines

Weight:

82,500 pounds

Operating altitude:

10,000 feet

Range:

Speed:

207
mph

Accommodation:

44
to 80 passengers

Variants

DC-4-1009

Post WWII
passenger

DC-4-1037

Post WWII
freighter

C-54

Derivatives

DC-4M North Star -
71 DC-4s were built by Canadair under the designations North Star, DC-4M,
C-4, and C-5. With the exception of the single C-5, these were all powered
by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and 51 of them were pressurized. The Royal
Canadian Air Force, Trans-Canada Air Lines, Canadian Pacific Air Lines and
BOAC operated these aircraft, the latter under the type name
"Argonaut".

Aviation Traders Carvair -
Starting in 1959, 21 DC-4s and C-54s found new life as ATL-98 Carvairs.
The Carvair was designed to carry 22 passengers and 5 automobiles. This
was accomplished by extending the fuselage, moving the cockpit above the
fuselage, adding a side-opening nose, and enlarging the vertical
stabilizer to offset the larger forward fuselage. These planes served as
flying ferries well into the seventies, and two are still airworthy as of
March 2008 - one each in Texas and South
Africa.